“At a time when democracies are under assault in the world, let’s unite again,” cried the American host, Joe Biden, to the rest of the leaders and foreign ministers gathered yesterday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles to officially start the IX Summit of the Americas.
The power of democracy must be preserved, insisted Biden, who has faced with multiple diplomatic efforts the “rebellion” of the leaders of the region closest to the three revolutions, excluded for disrespecting the rights of the peoples and violating human rights. The leaders of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua do not participate in the continental conclave, but their exclusion has become a throwing weapon against Biden and in favor of the global autocracies, Russia and China, determined to compete with the US in their backyard.
Despite the obstacles, the White House maintains its commitment to opening an era of more efficient cooperation with the rest of the nations. The objective sought is the reconstruction of economies greatly damaged by the pandemic. Biden wanted to make it clear from the start that “it is not only what the United States can do for the Americas, but what we can do together,” knowing that the economic crisis increased by the pandemic has redoubled migratory pressure against his country.
Washington’s calculations, only in the first year of the coronavirus, register 22 million new poor, to which must be added the immense human blow: despite being only 12% of the world population, 40% of the deaths.
One of the main consequences of the economic crisis is the “irregular” migratory pressure, which is “unacceptable” for the US. “Safe and orderly immigration is good for our economies, including the US, as a catalyst for sustainable growth,” said Biden, who opted to seal a new regional migration pact.
To fight continental ills, Biden announced the creation of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity in the Americas, a new economic pact “with development from the bottom up and from the middle out. The economy of the spill does not work,” the president acknowledged. , which did not advance further details. Biden’s commitment, as he made clear with his first words, is to recover what is known in the US as the spirit of Miami, which marked the first of these conclaves, in 1994, with Bill Clinton at the head.
The dissenting voice on the first day was represented by the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, sent by his president to act as a “righteous” voice for those offended by the exclusion of the region’s dictatorships. “We consider that it is a serious mistake and that no one has the right to exclude another, we do not accept the principle of intervention to unilaterally define who comes and who does not come,” said the man who is called to become Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s successor.
Despite the disagreements, the organizers included one of the most famous Mexican rancheras, the one who sings, charro hat in hand, “with money or without money, I always do what I want, my word is the law.”
While Ebrard demanded “another type of relationship” from Washington and once again insisted on eliminating the Organization of American States (OAS), one of the main obstacles to the hegemony of the followers of the Great Fatherland, his main ally at the summit, Argentina’s Alberto Fernández hugged Biden very fondly on the red carpet, even asking his wife for her phone number and showing the White House couple a picture of her phone.
Before the conclave begins in Los Angeles, Nicolás Maduro appointed Fernández as his “voice” before the rest of the countries. The “driver of victories” has also called for an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a counterweight to the Los Angeles conclave.
Precisely, the White House reported that Biden had a 17-minute telephone conversation, when he was already on board Air Force One, with his ally in Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, whom he recognized again as interim president, despite not being in your guest list. In the Californian city, collaborators of the interim government of Venezuela have made an appearance, which has lost important support in the region.
Biden’s promise still stands: “shade” his sanctions on Maduro in the face of the negotiations in Mexico, despite the constant torpedoes launched by the “people president.” Guaidó, for his part, insisted on the need for the US to lead the “international multilateral pressure” in search of free elections, the release of the 237 political prisoners and the restoration of democracy.
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